Canaan Decision To Affect Burbank, Creston Resident

Published: February 10, 1999 12:00 AM

Township trustees, in their capacity as the governing board of the Canaan Township Fire District, are wrestling with manpower shortages for emergency medical services, especially during daytime hours.

At a Feb. 4 workshop, trustees discussed options for raising additional funds for the fire district.

Some of the options include charging for all emergency squad runs, the use of an outside firm to provide ambulance service for all emergency squad runs and placing a new levy on the May ballot.

Township Trustee Jeff Coffey, who supports a levy proposal, would like to see the fire district hire a full-time coordinator to oversee the fire district's departments in Burbank and Creston, along with two emergency medical technicians and an on-call driver. The EMTs and driver would work weekdays.

Trustees will meet at 7 p.m. Thursday at the township office on Canaan Center Road. If a levy issue is to go on the May ballot, the trustees must approve a resolution and file it with the Wayne County Board of Elections by Feb. 18.

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In November, voters defeated a 5-mill, five-year levy that had been proposed to cover the cost of full-time EMS staffing during the day.

The fire district provides fire and emergency medical services for homes and businesses in the northern Wayne County township with a population of more than 4,000, including the villages of Burbank and Creston.

The district also provides emergency medical services for motor vehicle accidents in which there are injuries. Three busy state highways -- Ohio 3, Ohio 83 and Ohio 604 -- cross the township.

Firefighters and EMTs operate from two fire stations, one in Creston and one in Burbank.

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Burbank personnel responded to 40 accidents, 33 fires, four public service calls and made 58 emergency squad runs.

Burbank and Creston fire chiefs estimate that about 75 percent of injury victims from motor vehicle accidents in 1998 were nonresidents of the fire district.

Each station has a fire chief -- Bill White in Burbank and Calvin Croft in Creston.

White has been a firefighter for 17 years and will begin his third year as Burbank chief in March. Croft has been a firefighter for 25 years and has been fire chief in Creston a little more than one year.

The chiefs are appointed by township trustees. Croft and White are each paid $596 a year for the job.

"We pay high school football coaches more than we pay these guys," said Coffey, a former district fire chief.

As fire chiefs, Croft and White are responsible for volunteer personnel and training, overseeing equipment, complying with OSHA regulations and filing state reports.

"It's a lot more than I ever envisioned," White said. "It just goes on and on. It's never-ending and the state keeps throwing on new things all the time."

Both men also attend various meetings of fire chiefs and township meetings.

As of the first of this year, Creston had 21 volunteer firefighters, two of whom are cross-trained as EMTs, and 10 volunteer EMTs. Burbank had 18 volunteer firefighters, nine of whom are also trained as EMTs.

Response problems come during daytime hours when volunteers are at work, often away from the villages or township.

Both Burbank and Creston can have as many as three EMTs available -- or there can be none. There are generally between two and six firefighters available during daytime hours.

Since January 1998, Burbank and Creston have been called dispatched simultaneously for motor vehicle accidents, structure fires and all daytime calls, Croft said.

For a structure fire, he said, both departments respond. For accidents, the primary department responds with fire equipment and an emergency squad. The other department sends a squad only. This is done, he said, because in many accidents there is more than one victim.

The fire district also can request mutual aid -- assistance from other area fire and emergency squads -- whenever they lack the manpower to cover a call.

At night, Creston has between three and five EMTs available and seven to 10 firefighters. In Burbank, almost all personnel respond when there's a call, White said.

Current Levy Barely Pays For Service

By JAN CENTA

Rittman Bureau Editor

CANAAN TOWNSHIP

Since 1984, operating costs of the Canaan Township Fire District -- the district providing all-volunteer fire and emergency medical services for Burbank, Creston and the township -- have been paid for by a 2-mill continuing property tax levy.

According to the Wayne County Auditor's Office, that levy in 1998 raised $46,058 in taxes paid locally and another $7,863 from the state as reimbursement for property tax rollbacks.

A property with an assessed valuation of $75,000 would pay $42 a year in taxes to the fire district, deputy auditor Jarra Underwood said.

Operating expenses for the fire district in 1998 totaled $53,608, according to township Clerk Becky Hawk Croft, including: $11,232 for personnel; $5,909 for training, auditor fees and other items; $8,024 for utilities at the Creston and Burbank fire stations; $9,183 for equipment repairs and maintenance; $10,946 for expendable supplies; and $8,315 for insurance.

Township trustees have appropriated $58,132 for the fire district for 1999.

The fire district receives $100 per run from the Town and Country Fire District for covering a portion of that district, which encompasses Congress Township and West Salem. Through the first nine months of 1998, $1,600 had been received as reimbursement from Town and Country.

Funds for capital expenditures by the fire district come almost exclusively from other sources -- grants, bequests, donations, fund raising by the volunteer firefighters' benevelence associations and inheritance taxes.

Inheritance taxes are directed into a special fund by township trustees, Croft said, and are allowed to accumulate for major fire and EMS equipment purchases.

The township received $22,085 in 1998, she said. When added to the $30,000 on hand, it brought the total to $52,085, from which trustees spent $42,000 toward the purchase of a 1985 pumper/tanker for Burbank. The balance came from a $36,000 six-year loan.

The trustees also spent $4,000 toward a 1988 emergency squad vehicle for Burbank costing $5,500, with the remaining $1,500 coming from fire district tax funds. At the end of 1998, there was a balance of $6,085 remaining in the inheritance tax fund.

In 1998, Burbank received a $10,000 grant from the Beaverson Foundation to purchase self-contained breathing apparatus.

Twelve years ago, Burbank received a $10,000 donation to purchase a Jaws of Life. Ten years ago, Creston received a $30,000 bequest, used to purchase an emergency squad vehicle.

The Creston Volunteer Firemen's Benefit Association holds an auction that raises an average of $9,000 each year. It also holds a variety of other fund-raisers throughout the year.

The Burbank Volunteer Firemen's Benefit Association also conducts a variety of fund-raisers. It is involved in a family portraits project this year, similar to one Creston used as a fund-raiser in 1998.

The Burbank association also sells flashing strobe lights that can be used on bicycles, in stranded vehicles or in a house window so emergency personnel can locate a home more quickly. Both associations sell reflective address-number placards.

The Creston fire station was built by volunteers in 1958 with money from donations and fund-raisers. Additions and remodeling since then have been funded the same way. The Burbank fire station is owned and maintained by the Burbank volunteers.

The fire district pays for utilities at both stations, but all other costs for the Burbank firehouse are covered by the association.

The Creston station has a 1988 emergency squad vehicle, purchased new for $30,000 using funds willed to the department by a Creston woman.

Creston also has two pumper/tankers purchased with inheritance tax funds. One is a 1984 model purchased for $127,000; the other, a 1994 truck purchased for $137,000 with an additional $30,000 from the association spent to equip it.

Creston also has a 1989 grass fire truck that was purchased with $17,000 in inheritance tax money plus $2,000 for added equipment. The firefighters' association spent another $9,000 to finish equipping that truck.

Burbank has the 1985 pumper/tanker and a 1989 mini-pumper purchased "bare-bones" with tax money for $96,000. The association equipped the vehicle.

Burbank also has a 1969 pumper/tanker bought new 30 years ago, a 1978 grass-fire truck that was purchased by the association, and the 1988 emergency squad vehicle.

A 1986 squad currently in service in Burbank will go to the Creston station as a back-up unit when the 1988 vehicle goes into service in Burbank.